Myles Keogh

Myles Keogh (25 March 1840-25 June 1876) was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the US Army. Born in Ireland, he previously served in the army of the Papal States, and he entered the Union Army during the American Civil War and immigrated to the United States. Keogh was killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

Biography
Myles Keogh was born on 25 March 1840 in Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland to a barley-farming family, and three of his siblings died in typhus during the Great Famine (the blight itself barely affected the Keogh family due to barley being their main crop). He was educated under the name "Miles Kehoe", and in 1860 he headed to Italy with 1,000 other Irish volunteers to serve in the Papal Army. Keogh was captured at Ancona after the city was surrounded by Sardinia following the Battle of Castelfidardo, and he would be released at the conflict's end. In March 1862, he resigned his commission in the Papal Army to head to the United States, and he served as a Major in the cavalry under John Buford. Keogh saw action in several battles from the Battle of Port Republic to the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign, and Sunshine Church on 31 July 1864, where he was captured. William T. Sherman later arranged for his release, and he ended the war as a Lieutenant-Colonel.

In 1866, Keogh accepted a commission as a Lieutenant, and he became a captain in the US 7th Cavalry Regiment under George Armstrong Custer. The isolation of the West led him to develop depression, drinking to excess; however, he did not become an alcoholic, and his comrades thought of him as a friend. In 1874, he went on a trip back to Ireland, the last time that he would see his home country. In 1876, he led the first company of the 7th Cavalry, and he gave copies of his will to his men, telling them that he loved them and their families and that he considered America to be a second home. In the battle, Keogh and his company had their own final stand, and all of them were killed; he was shot through his horse in the chest. Keogh's body was found stripped but not mutilated, as the Sioux believed that his Lamb of God necklace contained "medicine", and it was reported that many of Sitting Bull's warriors were Catholic.